A Day In The Life of The Strongman
by Bite The Dust
Summary: A normal day for the Strongman in the Yakitate! Japan's Carnival AU.


**This fic is a present for Mystical Authoress, as congratulations for one year of writing and a whopping 100 fics published! Way to go, girl! Hope you don't mind that I came up with another Carnie version of a character, by the way... Although if I thought enough that it was something you'd dislike I just wouldn't do it in the first place, so I'm sure it'll be fine!  
**

**Please read at least some of her Carnie series before this, though, please, because it won't make much sense otherwise!**

* * *

Birds chirping.

Sunlight hitting my tired body, making me uncomfortably warm.

Multiple people's voices outside, the exact words spoken just outside my sensory reach.

All normal indicators of morning; alright, alright, I'm getting up...

I allowed my eyelids to flutter open before jumping up with a start. This was not the men's bunks.

Even though I hadn't slept in said bunks for a long while now, I still haven't gotten used to waking up in the feminine, frilly, warm-colored tent of the Ringmaster.

The tent's owner, as usual, had awoken far earlier than I, being that she is in charge of literally everything in the carnival and works herself to the bone from before the sun comes up until after it goes down, most days. I think it would be nice to wake up with her more often, to be honest, but I need far more sleep to function than she, and shirking her responsibilities for someone like me would be foolish of her.

I threw off the thick pink comforter and began searching the cluttered tent to find clothes of mine to get dressed in- "Dressed" being relative, I suppose, seeing as my usual outfit consisted of pants and not much else. I eventually did find a suitable pair, and put them on. I grabbed my cigar case off of the nightstand as well, and tucked it into my pocket before heading out into the morning sun.

I trekked to the mess tent for breakfast first- bacon, eggs, toast, coffee, being the Strongman I needed all the protein and carbs I could intake at a time- and headed next door to the tent where the animals were kept, as I was good friends with the Lion Tamer and he liked to have company when he fed them in the morning. _"I start talking to them, man, they're as worried about me as I am_", he had told me.

I entered the tent and was greeted with many different kinds of animal calls. See, he calls himself the Lion Tamer, but he deals with all the animals. The lions, the elephants, horses, monkeys, dogs, bears, seals, the tigers, which are my personal favorite- Sometimes he even lets me use them in my act- and, not to mention, all the smaller animals from the petting zoo and such.

"There you are Strongman, you slept pretty late today, even for you! I'm almost finished here." The large, afro-sporting man called out to me when he noticed my arrival. He was currently pouring water into the horses' trough. He says he doesn't have any favorites, but everyone knows he had a soft spot for the horses.

I sat down on a pile of crates of animal food in the far corner and began quickly eating my own breakfast. "I know, and I apologize, I was up rather late last night."

He gave me a cheeky smile. "Yeah, yeah, Strongman, everybody already knows you have _that_ kind of relationship with our sweet little Ringmaster, no need to brag about it."

I calmly brought my mug of coffee to my lips and took a long drink, and with my free hand shoved my fist into the crate nearest to me, causing it to splinter loudly and practically explode, scattering pellets of food all over the floor of the tent.

"Aw, shit, man, what the hell!?" He grabbed a dustpan and broom and rushed over, trying to salvage the exploded food, picking splinters out of small piles of it.

I put down my mug again, now empty. "Oh, no, I'm sorry! My hand must have slipped. You know how I am before I get some caffeine and a smoke." I took a cigar out of my case, bit off the end, spat it at him, and lit it by snapping my fingers and causing a spark.

He sighed, and swept up the end in his growing pile of splinters. "Man, I'm sorry... I don't know where the hell that came from, I know you don't like getting joked with like that. You've been nothin' but good to me since you got here, and you're never shy about helping anybody out with even the shittiest chore. It's no wonder you're her favorite."

I sat, staring blankly at him, not at all expecting such compliments. I busied myself gathering up my cutlery in order to look at anything other than him. I managed to mumble out a meek and surprised "Thank you."

"You been kinda, uh... Hostile, lately, though. Really temperamental. You two not doing well, or something?"

I quickly looked back up at him, frowning. "Nothing of the sort."

"If you say so, but... Uh... Pal?"

"Hm?"

"You're, uh, bleedin', a little bit."

"Oh?" I looked down again to see that I had crushed my poor coffee mug and had pieces of the ceramics stuck in my hand. "Oh." I flexed it a little bit. It hurt. "Ow." I looked back to him again. "Well then."

"Yeah... You should probably head down to the infirmary... Leave those shards and your plate here, I'll deal with it for ya."

"Thank you, that's very nice of you." I got up and walked out, calm as could be, even with the deceased mug causing me to drip that red people water all over the ground. I'm kinda dizzy. Maybe I should ask Mr. Lion Tamer to let me ride a tiger to the infirmary. That would be neat.

"Sure, kid. Feel better soon."

I made it to the infirmary pretty quick, it wasn't really far away. That's good. I walked in and was surprised to find it manned by Miss Fortune's Doll. He's a pretty nice guy, that probably means he's a good nurse, too.

"Hi, Doll!" I called out, and he swiveled to look at me. He was in one of those spinny office chairs, and had been looking at something on a desk. "Can you fix my hand?"

"S-Strongman? You don't look so good, sit down, you're awfully pale... Oh my God your hand!"

I sat down on one of the infirmary cots, like he said to. That helped the dizziness a little. "Yeah it's got a dead coffee mug all in it, can you fix it? It'll be easy since there are two of you." My head was starting to hurt. Were there three of him now? That's convenient.

"Oh dear, you've lost a lot of blood haven't you? Must have nicked an artery. The Ringmaster put me in charge here today because Miss Fortune was rather busy this morning and I told her once that I had thorough EMT training, but I didn't think I'd ever actually have to use it!" He was rushing around, grabbing all sorts of things out of a bunch cabinets.

Oh, Ringmaster. I wonder where she is. I want to see her, she could kiss my hurt hand and make it all better really quick.

The Doll had grabbed a whole pile of stuff and set it down on the little table next to the cot I was on. "Here, give me your hand." I did. "This will hurt a little, prepare yourself." He put a syringe full of something into my hand and pushed the stopper down. "That's a pain killer, I'm going to start pulling the shards out now."

"Okay." My hand didn't hurt anymore. As a matter of fact, it didn't anything.

"So..." The blonde man began, grabbing some big tweezers and a little tray. "What brings you to the infirmary so early in the morning with your hand full of... 'Dead coffee mug', did you say?" He chuckled, pulled out the biggest piece, and put it on the tray. "Oh, good, this looked worse than it was, you won't need any stitches, it seems. It probably won't even scar."

"Okay." I kinda wanted to move my hand to see how it would feel but I didn't.

He pulled out another big piece. "So? What happened?"

"The Lion Tamer made me angry and I broke it on accident." I frowned, watching him deftly and quickly pull bloody pieces of ceramic out of my hand and rubbing the opened up parts with something on a little rag. "He didn't mean to, though. Not when I broke the mug, anyway."

"Is that so? What did he do?" He was working to pull out some of the smaller pieces now.

"He asked about me and the Ringmaster."

"Why would that make you break a coffee mug?" He was down to the last couple of pieces, it looked like one was giving him trouble though. "I mean, I know you're very protective of her, but just talking wouldn't usually make you mad at all. Is something wrong?"

"I don't think she likes me anymore. Or she ever did."

"Hmm..." He had finished yanking shards out of me, and put the big tweezers- Forceps, that's what they're called- back on the table, along with the tray full of gross shards. "Isn't that something you should try discussing with her?"

"I'm afraid of being right."

He took a bandage from his pile of supplies and began wrapping liberal amounts of it around my hand. "Why do you think that in the first place?"

"I just haven't seen a lot of her lately, I guess. We're together, y'know, at night, but I don't really talk to her or see any of her otherwise."

He chuckled and took the last couple things from his pile- a squishy bag full of red, a long tube, some more little rags, and a piece of rubber- and began messing around with my arm.

"Do you know why she's been working so hard these last couple weeks, Strongman?" He asked me.

"No." I replied. When I wasn't looking he had connected the squishy red bag to my arm. Apparently it was blood and I was receiving a transfusion. Is he allowed to do that?

He smiled at me. "She's been doing it all for you."

"I-I beg your pardon?"

He kept a close eye on the bag, but continued talking to me, smiling all the while. "She's been working double time to get the carnival reopened so that when it's open for business again she can do her part of the act and deal with emergencies only- so she'll have all the more time for you."

I could only sit and stare blankly at him.

"You see, a few weeks ago she came in to see the Fortune Teller in a similar state to the one you were in when you came stumbling in here, except she had been putting extraneous liquids into her body instead of letting necessary ones leave it." He tapped at the transfusion bag pointedly. "Anyway, she comes in drunk out of her mind crying over how she isn't able to spend near as much time as she wants to with her beloved Strongman, and we help her come up with this plan. She said she was going to explain it to you but I suppose she was just too embarrassed."

"O-Oh... I see..."

"Makes a lot of sense doesn't it?" The transfusion bag had emptied and he began cleaning up my arm.

"Yes, I suppose it does..."

I sat in silence for a few moments, watching him put all of his equipment away and put another bandage on me. He went to the sink on the other side of the room and began washing his instruments, as well.

"I've been... Rather foolish, haven't I, Doll?" I said to his back.

"I wouldn't say so." He turned off the faucet and began drying his things. "It's perfectly normal for human beings to have thoughts like that, to second guess ourselves. Higher thinking like taking into account the possibility of failure and mistakes in daily living is something that separates us from mere beasts. A little anxiety every once in a while is good for keeping you on your toes, becoming overconfident will only cause you to trip up more often." He stacked his instruments up on the counter to finish air drying, and turned to me with a knowing look on his face. "But you should have more faith in the woman you love. If you expect her to hurt you at every opportunity then eventually she will."

"L-L-L-Love? I w-wouldn't say that she or I..."

He glared at me.

I prickled, my face hot with shame "Yes, sir. You're exactly right, sir."

He gave me a smile then. "Good. Well, then you're free to go. No more mug homicide."

I hopped up, re-energized, and marched my way to the exit, but found myself pausing in the doorway, looking back at him, hoping I looked more like a serious adult than a lovesick idiot.

"If I don't work as hard as she does, I'll have let her down. She's putting everything she has into making this carnival successful, so I need to improve myself to bring in as many guests as I can, to make all her hard work worthwhile."

I had turned back around, but I could feel his blinding smile at my back. "That's the spirit! Don't work too hard today, though, if you open up your wounds and undo all my hard work I'll be angry with you."

"Yes, sir." I called back to him as I left. As soon as I had left the building I pulled out a cigar, lit it in the same fashion as earlier, and began the journey to the practice tent.

There was a special tent set up for the performers to practice in. A lot of... Accidents happened during practice and if anyone were to hurt the big tent they'd get their pay docked and a scolding from the Ringmaster. (Knife Thrower usually ends up hurting whatever tent or building he's in except for the big tent because of this.)

The only other Carnie practicing at the moment was the Firebreather. Most of the other people that work in the carnival think we hate each other, but for all the prodding we do at one another we actually get along rather well. At one point we conceded that we benefit greatly from practicing together; since we are both so competitive we're constantly trying to one-up each other, and more often than not we'll come up with new stunts. And we respect each other, in our own different ways.

When I came into the tent, he was balancing barefoot on a baton that was burning on both ends. It was slowly shrinking, but he didn't waver at all.

I do some firebreathing as well, but he is on an entire different level than me. A good firebreathing act involves a lot of magic, something I am entirely inept at. Pulling batons out of thin air, making things burst into flames when you aren't looking at them, or even from across the room (He explained that to me once as "Kinda like throwing your voice, y'know? But with fire." I still don't really understand it.) You need to be pretty skilled at acrobatics, as well, but that's at least something I'm good at. Although I could never do Aerial Silk with burning silk- Another one of Firebreather's talents- heights just don't sit well with me.

He's told me he wishes he could do a lot of my tricks, too, though. "_You think this boring stuff is cool? I'm flattered, believe me, but I would rather be able to lift a car or fold steel sheets into origami like you_" is something I remember him saying to me. "_I also wish I could have hair, but my pride hurts a lot less than getting it all burned off would!_"

Not wanting to break his concentration, I walked over to the weight set, and began gently lifting a bar weight with my usable hand.

"Oh hey there you are!" The Firebreather called out to me, still not wobbling at all. "Aw, man, you're all fucked up. What'd you do?" He burned the baton down the rest of the way with a breath and ran over to me, worried.

"You should see the other guy." I tossed the weight and caught it, still not using my mummified hand. "I committed brutal murder on a piece of cutlery." I tossed it again, higher this time, and still caught it.

"Don't say shit like that, man! I thought you were in like a knife fight or something." He smacked the back of my head. "I get worried about you, you know?" He frowned deeply at me.

I gave him a smile. "Yes, I know."

He made another baton appear and began the same meditation he was doing before, lighting both ends of it, balancing it on one end, and standing on top of it.

Most of the time I allotted for practice was spent absently tossing the bar weight and watching Firebreather out of the corner of my eye. He meditated for a while more before practicing the previously mentioned burning Aerial Silk, all the while shooting worried glances at me.

Of course I knew he had feelings for me. So did practically everyone else. He liked to think he was sneaky about it, but he made it glaringly obvious more often than not.

I'm sorry for him, I respect him more than anyone as a fellow performer and cherish his friendship, but that's as far as it goes. I can't imagine how he must feel.

Usually I only feel bad about it, but, at the moment, his sneaking looks were making me nervous (As I was filled with anxiety anyway), and I began twisting and untwisting the bar weight into a pretzel shape unconsciously. Still with one hand.

Before I knew it, the sun was setting. Firebreather had lit all the lamps in the room without my noticing, as well.

I unfolded the weight again and set it back on the rack. "I'm sorry to cut our session short today, but I have something that I need to take care of."

"Man, it's cool." He called to me from his place hanging upside down from the ceiling of the tent, where he was thoroughly wrapped up in his silks. He turned his body once and fell toward the ground, landing softly on his feet. "It's amazing that you made it at all today with that hand." He beamed at me, genuinely thankful for my company.

I smiled, I knew nowhere near as brightly, back- another talent he had that I didn't- thanked him, and left.

I returned to where my day had began, Ringmaster's tent, and sat outside the entrance, waiting for its owner to return as well.

It didn't take long.

"Oh! There you are." When she saw me, she ran over and sat down on her haunches beside me. "I heard you were hurt so I went looking for you when I finished up, but you were here all along, huh?"

"I've been waiting for you here the whole time." I gave her a small smile.

She pouted. "I hate this 'Gift of the Magi' stuff. It's so dumb. Where were you hurt?" She hadn't been able to see my hand because my arms were folded. I brought out the bandaged appendage so she could get a good look at it.

She took it in her hands and lovingly petted it, a wince on her face. "This looks so bad! What happened?"

"I committed coffee-mugocide this morning. It fought back."

She laughed- a beautiful, tinkling sound that I loved to hear- and planted kisses all over my crippled hand, like I knew she would. When she decided it was thoroughly healed, she held it to her cheek, leaning into it and giving me a soft smile.

Ah, God, I loved her so. And I knew she was tired, but I had so much to tell her...

I grabbed her around her back and behind her knees, picking her up quickly and easily in the princess carry.

She was surprised, but not in a bad way, and not much. She raised a questioning brow at me. "What are you doing?"

"Hush." I told her, and began running with her in my arms. Behind her tent, through the woods, away from the carnival, somewhere no one could follow us- Like they did far, far too often. In almost no time at all we came to a small clearing in the trees with a perfect view of the moon.

"Wow." She mumbled, looking around. "I didn't even know this was here."

"I didn't really want you to. I usually come here to think, alone." I put her down gently. "But I figured you needed somewhere where you can be by yourself far more than I do. I know how you become bothered by us carnies if you're around us for too long."

"This... This is amazing, it really is." She was still looking around, wide-eyed. "You know, you can bother me any time you want, though. I'm always happy for your company, no matter what, even if I'm not really acting like it."

She was looking straight at me, now, looking serious.

I gathered her up into my arms again, burying my face in the crook of her neck and sighing deeply. My Ringmaster, for all her strengths, she was still so soft and pliant... I sat down in the soft grass, still holding her to me, and shifting so she was placed in my lap. "I love you..." I breathed onto her skin, hoping it reached her heart.

She gasped, and I could feel her mouth stretch into a smile. I smiled, too. She wrapped her arms around my neck. "Oh, my darling Strongman, I love you _too!_"

We clung to each other in that manner for a long while before I spoke up again, lips still pressed against her skin. "I've... Missed you a lot, lately, you know... I thought you'd grown tired of me."

She leaned away from me then to look me in the eye. "No... Never. I could never do that." She hugged me gently, resting her head on my shoulder. "I thought you would get tired of me since I'd been paying so little attention to you lately."

"I know you have to work hard to keep this place afloat, that's one of the things I admire most about you. I'd never ask you to pick between it or I." I clasped my hands behind her back and let them rest gently around her waist. "You're right, this Gift of the Magi stuff is terrible."

She laughed- if I could bottle the way that sound made me feel I'd become a millionaire overnight- and leaned away from me again, cupping my face in her hands and pressing our foreheads together. "It's pretty alright if you're madly in love with the other party involved, I think."

"Th-That is the sappiest thing that has ever come out of your mouth, Ringmaster."

"Well now that I've broken my record I'll have to try even harder next time, huh..."

"I suppose so..."

Finally, after what felt like an eternity of waiting, she pressed her lips softly to my own with a sigh.

She always tastes so sweet, more so than any sugar or fruit on the face of the planet. And her lips and tongue on mine, her hands on my body... Are the most comfortable feelings I've ever known.

I don't know what my life would be like if I hadn't joined the carnival, but I do know that I would be lonely without all of my friends, and missing the piece of my soul that I didn't know she had before I met her.

She giggled and said "You taste like smoke." And I picked her up once more, to carry her home so we could sleep.

We needed it. After all, Tomorrow is always a big day at the carnival.

* * *

**I didn't mean for this to turn out so mushy! I really didn't! It always just happens.**

**Also I really don't think you learn how to do a blood transfusion during EMT training, but it seems simple enough, right?**


End file.
